Santa’s Elves Ready for Christmas in Brooklyn

Christmas is just around the corner, and that certainly means that Santa’s Elves need to get busy.   And in Brooklyn, a collection of his elves are doing just that. Master creator and mechanical animator, Lou Nasti, has a 15,000 square foot workshop in East Flatbush called Mechanical Displays Inc.

Humble Beginnings

Started in 1969, Nasti’s displays have been everywhere from Cartier to the Children’s Zoo in Central Park.

As Nasti explains the approaching holiday,

“The Christmas season is very busy around here. This is Santa’s workshop where the elves make all the stories. There’s always a story in my displays and that’s what really creates the excitement.”

And Nasti, of course, actually looks like Geppetoo with his gray moustache and the twinkle in his eye.   As the Marine Park resident explained,

“That’s just what everyone calls me. I go out to dinner with my wife and they call her Mrs. Geppetto!”

Each Display Unique

Every display that Nasti makes is thought-out and incredibly detail-oriented. He sits at the location of the next installation for hours, thinking about what he wants to build and display. He then returns to his workshop where he builds the items, piece-by-piece and then ships them to the installation location to put them together there.

This is truly Santa’s workshop in action, right here in Brooklyn, New York!

Picture from Jacob E. Osterhout of the New York Daily News.